Catching Up With TTC's Upcoming Finch West Station

Work is continuing on the TTC’s ambitious Toronto-York Spadina Subway Extension. Today, we look at the construction progress of the second subway station on the extension—Finch West Station.

Finch West Station will be located at the intersection of Finch Avenue and Keele Street in North York. The main street entrance to the subway will be a small building on the northwest corner of the intersection, while a bus terminal with an automatic entrance is going in on the east side of Keele next to the Finch and Keele Commercial Centre and across from Four Winds Drive. North of the bus terminal and situated between Keele Street and Tangiers Road will be a commuter parking lot with nearly 400 spaces.

The above-ground plan for the station layout. North is to the right. Image courtesy of the TTC.

So far, work on the track level has been completed up to Finch West Station’s south end. There is, however, still plenty of work yet to be done in the station box itself.

The station box, looking north from Finch. Image by Nathan Christie.

While some parts of the platform and concourse levels such as stairs and foundational pillars can already be seen completed, the chamber for the station box leading to the bus terminal is still very much open.

The station box, looking east from Keele. Image by Nathan Christie.

The structure for the station is steadily taking shape, but there is still plenty of work to be done. Image by Nathan Christie.

The structure for the main entrance is currently further along in construction, and will likely be completed before the bus terminal.

The station entrance in construction. Image by Nathan Christie.

The lands that will eventually become the aforementioned commuter parking lot have not seen any construction yet. The field is currently being used as a storage area for construction materials, and north of that is a section of the York University Busway. The busway, which leads from Downsview Station to York University, will be made redundant once the subway extension opens, and the section between Keele and Tangiers is expected to be removed. However, it is not clear yet when construction on the parking lot will commence.

Part of the field that will be used for the future parking lot. Image by Nathan Christie.

This section of the busway between Keele and Tangiers will be demolished when the station opens. Image by Nathan Christie.

Since Finch West Station is being built in one of the busier areas on the planned extension, commuters in the area have gotten used to numerous lane closures on Keele, ranging from Murrary Ross Pkwy south to Toro Rd. Currently, only southbound traffic including the 41 Keele bus is allowed in this section, while northbound traffic is forced to detour via Toro and Tangiers roads.

This section of Keele St between Murray Ross and Finch is currently open only to southbound traffic. Image by Nathan Christie.

The 107 Keele North bus is not servicing Keele in this section at all, and has to take the detour both ways. As a result of these traffic changes, pedestrian walkways and even traffic signals have been relocated at the Finch-Keele intersection. There is no definitive date set by the TTC as to when the intersection will return to normal.

The Finch and Keele intersection, looking southwest from the Finch Keele Plaza. Image by Nathan Christie.

Finch West’s unique architectural concept is courtesy of aLL Design and Stevens Group Architects. If the stark patterns and vibrant colours remind you of the OCAD building, it is no coincidence—aLL Design’s lead architect Will Alsop is responsible for both. There was some controversy recently when recently released renderings showed the station revised as something more akin to brutalism. However, TTC spokesman Brad Ross still confirmed the original design as the one planned for the station.

The main building as it should look in 2016. Image courtesy of the TTC.

Currently, Finch West Station is scheduled to open along with the rest of the new stations in Fall 2016, although TTC CEO Andy Byford has recently let it be known that the opening date may slip into 2017.

Official signage along the western fence of the main construction area. Image by Nathan Christie.

The station is also planned to be the eastern terminus of the future Etobicoke-Finch West LRT, which is planned for a 2019 opening. The LRT would connect to Finch West station from the concourse level at its south end.

Want to get a better idea of how Finch West Station will look when complete? UrbanToronto's dataBase file for the project has more information and plenty of renderings. Want to talk about it? Choose the associated Forum thread link to get in on the discussion, or leave a comment in the space provided on this page.